Globally, the development of online payments is driven by country-specific economic, technological and social factors. There are significant variations in the use of online payment methods across regions, with transactions ranging from small values to substantial amounts, initiated via a series of payment instruments and driven by different business models.

In its attempt to capture these paradigm shifts across markets and establish a broader context, the 2012 edition of Innopay`s "Online payments 2012 – Moving beyond the web" provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of trends and developments, both on a global and a regional scale.

While the previous issue reported on the emergence of continents on the web and the battle of the ‘internet giants’, this year`s particular focus is on the expansion of the arena for online payments in the direction of traditional in-store retail. The report is divided into two sections.

Part 1 presents the general developments in online payments and an overview of the activity of some global players in the online payments field. One of the important trends in this section is the close relation of the offline and online channel.

Part 2 provides data on preferred payment methods, online shopping behavior and online retail volumes for an array of regions and countries, including three case studies.

“This report provides an overview of e-commerce payment methods and habits across the globe. It shows that we’re operating in a fascinating world that is diverse and full of developments but also one that has plenty of room for innovation to enable web retailers to sustain growth and offer their services increasingly across borders. The content of this report will help to achieve that goal!”, according to the Executive Committee of Ecommerce Europe.

The report was officially released at the EPCA Payments Summit 2012 in Rome and is intended for professionals active in the ‘transaction services industry’, including merchants, banks, payment service providers, risk service providers, scheme organisations and policy makers. With this report we hope to provide a clear insight into the current state of the global online payments industry.